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The Massachusetts State Ethics Commission's Enforcement Division issued an Order to Show Cause alleging that former Brockton police officer Charles Lincoln violated the state's conflict of interest law, G.L. c. 268A. A public hearing will be scheduled within 90 days.

According to the Order to Show Cause, Lincoln was a full-time Brockton police officer from 1972 until January 2004. Between January 2001 and January 2004, Lincoln also served as the full-time Director of Security at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility for the Plymouth County Sheriff's Department. During the three years that Lincoln was employed simultaneously by both departments, he used a total of approximately 251 sick leave days, 222 from Brockton and 29 from Plymouth County, claiming he was sick, injured or caring for ill members of his family. On 148 of the days Lincoln called in sick in Brockton, he worked a full shift in Plymouth. On seven days he called in sick in Plymouth, he worked a full shift in Brockton. The Commission's Enforcement Division alleges he used these 155 sick days "to lessen the demands of holding two full-time positions."

Upon retirement in January 2004, the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission calculated Lincoln's annual retirement allowance at $139,787 based on Lincoln's average combined salary, $177,569, for his last three years of employment, in accordance with the law governing retirement, G.L. c. 32 § 5.

Section 23(b)(2) of the conflict law prohibits a public employee from using or attempting to use his position to secure for himself or others an unwarranted privilege of substantial value not properly available to similarly situated individuals.

By using his dual positions to receive 155 days of sick leave pay for purposes that were not legitimate and by inflating his retirement benefits by abusing sick time, Lincoln allegedly violated G.L. c. 268A, § 23(b)(2).

A joint motion to stay the proceedings has been filed by the Enforcement Division and Lincoln pending the resolution of two other related matters: United States v. Charles Bradshaw Lincoln and City of Brockton v. Charles B. Lincoln.